


Gardens and Their Guardians

by ideallyqualia



Series: UshiOi [3]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Final Haikyuu Quest, M/M, Plants, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-28
Updated: 2015-10-28
Packaged: 2018-04-28 14:41:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5094485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ideallyqualia/pseuds/ideallyqualia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Unable to come up with an alternative, Hinata and his friends decided to imprison Oikawa - as a plant.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gardens and Their Guardians

**Author's Note:**

> This is as serious as you want it to be.

Kenma stepped back. "There."

In front of him was a flower with its bare roots, spread out on the castle floor instead of rooted to any dirt. It looked like it was dumped there, its petals drooping a little.  

"Where'd he go?" Hinata asked.  

Kenma set his staff down. "He's there." 

Iwaizumi's sword clung as he let it drop, resting it on the floor with his hand still on the hilt. Iwaizumi moved his fisted hand to his mouth, stifling a snort. 

Kageyama's arms relaxed. "Did he turn Oikawa into a plant?"

"He deserves it," Iwaizumi said. "Anyway, I don't think Kenma really knows any spells that aren't healing spells."

"It's all I know," Kenma said.

Hinata hopped over to him. His sword was already on the floor, so his hands were free to wave in the air and swing down to Kenma's back, startling Kenma into cringing and blinking. 

"Woah! Can he talk?" Hinata asked. 

"I think with telepathy… Since he was a demon," Kenma added.

"He can't turn back on his own, right?" Kageyama asked him.

"No," Kenma said.

"Make me one! For a minute," Hinata added. 

"Didn't you hear what he just said? If you can't do magic, you're  _useless_ as a plant," Kageyama said.

"I said  _for a minute."_ Hinata stood up on his toes. "Better yet, make Kageyama a plant! Make him shorter than me!"

"You're so  _noisy._.."

Hinata stopped moving. "What was that?"

"Just ignore Oikawa," Iwaizumi said. "What are we going to do? Should we leave him here?"

"Don't ignore me!"

Kageyama rubbed over the side of his head. "I can  _hear_ him."

"Move him," Aone said.

"To where?" Iwaizumi asked.

"We need a pot first!" Hinata pointed at the exit uselessly, and then walked to the wall and started scrabbling through Oikawa's belongings on the table.

"What do  _you_ know about planting?" Kageyama stepped up to him and grabbed his shoulder. 

Hinata yelped and elbowed him. "Get off!"

Iwaizumi stepped closer to Oikawa, his hands reaching to pick him up, but he hesitated. "There's thorns all over."

"It's so I don't get manhandled."

"He's a demon," Kageyama said. "Maybe that's why he has thorns?"

Hinata slowed next to Kageyama, his hands stopping in the air from clawing Kageyama's back. "He's a demon plant?"

"He needs sunlight," Kenma said quietly.

"Everyone, stop talking," Iwaizumi snapped. The room grew quiet as everyone stilled. "He has thorns, so he can't be picked up. I'll kick him out. My foot's armored."

Oikawa couldn't audibly breathe, but a low surprised rush of sound went through everyone from him. "I object!"

"Use a shovel," Kageyama suggested.

"Levitate him!" Hinata glanced at Kenma. "Can you do that?"

"Yes."

"Don't make him waste his magic on that," Iwaizumi said.

Oikawa remained on the floor quietly, his leaves stiff in the air. The arguing went on for a while, and Oikawa was forced to listen the entire time. He didn't know what Kageyama and Iwaizumi had been doing away from him, and how much of a threat they were together in a group with other people, but Oikawa saw now that this group's teamwork was laughable outside of battle. It was an unpredictable sequence of contribution, each of them suggesting something that went over everyone else's heads or irritated someone. 

Their decision came to levitation. Iwaizumi became convinced that this was safest, since no one had to touch Oikawa this way.

Kenma floated Oikawa out of the castle, levitating him in a small bubble of gentle light. Oikawa hovered up and down with his magic, and when Kenma got outside, he dropped Oikawa.

"Rough! That's mean!"

"It hurt? I didn't know," Kenma said.

"I'm not a rock! My vibrant loveliness means I'm very alive."

Kenma turned to leave, frowning and silent, unable to respond.

"You're just going to leave me here?"

"Iwaizumi told me to," Kenma said.

"Tell him to get over here!"

Kenma walked away hurriedly. Oikawa could tell that Kenma's speed wasn't motivated by his orders. 

Oikawa's stem held him up straight on top of the grass. The wind was pleasantly cool, and the calm sky had its blessings, but Oikawa was bored. Kenma didn't even dig up soil to plant him properly.

 

* * *

 

Oikawa counted two days. Two sunrises since he was left outside, two days with decent sunlight and without water. Oikawa didn't struggle, but he inflated the problem in his head and complained when Kageyama walked by. 

Oikawa scrambled in his thoughts when someone new approached, someone he knew and recognized right away.

"Oikawa?" 

"Go away! And while you're at it, get Iwaizumi." 

Ushijima crouched down. "I heard what happened." 

"Who told you? Never mind, just keep walking."

"I already talked with them. I'm here to move you," Ushijima said.

"Well, don't."

"They haven't been taking care of you." 

"I'm fine."

Ushijima's hand moved to Oikawa's stem, rustling the leaves to find a grip. Ushijima's hand was gloved, in thick brown gloves that protected him from Oikawa's thorns. He still had his sword with him, but it was sheathed at the side of his waist, out of the way. 

"Be careful! Someone already dropped me."

Ushijima lifted Oikawa up with both hands on Oikawa's stem, one of his hands moving under the roots to keep Oikawa steady. Oikawa sat in his hand limply, motionless and useless once again. 

Ushijima carried him to a flower pot on the first floor of the castle, in a room that used to be a servant's room. The flower pot was an ordinary one in a rectangle shape, set under the window on the window sill.

"This is old and dusty." 

"It's a good size," Ushijima said. 

"I didn't mean the flower pot! I meant the room! This is my castle. Put me in the throne room." 

Ushijima ignored him and cleared soil in the flower pot to make room for Oikawa. Ushijima carefully guided Oikawa down and covered his roots with the soil, and he patted the soil to pack it together.

"You're making too much of a fuss. I can take care of myself."

"You can't move," Ushijima pointed out.

"Plants  _don't_ move, and they're all fine."

Ushijima frowned. "I'd rather not leave your survival to chance." 

"You care  _so_ much, I don't understand." 

Ushijima ignored him again and began watering him with a watering can from the nearby table. Oikawa felt a refreshing wave of cool water spill over his petals and leaves, and it continued to the soil to seep through and replenish his roots.

"Why can't you just plant me outside?" 

"It's fall. Soon it'll snow," Ushijima explained.

Oikawa fell silent. Ushijima's detailed concern was a surprise, but Oikawa didn't actually know that much about him. Oikawa only developed his Ushijima-specific irritation after one time, when Ushijima drove out his pet dragon from the nearby forest. Oikawa never got it back.

"I'll return tomorrow," Ushijima said.

Oikawa tried to come up with a demand to give him, but Ushijima left within a minute. Oikawa sat there for the rest of the day still trying to think of something.

 

* * *

 

"This flower pot is dull. Get me a new one." 

"The color doesn't matter." Ushijima glanced around at it, before looking up at the window. "If it's too bright, though, I can draw the curtains."

"No, leave them alone. This angle of sunlight shows my best."

Ushijima set the watering can aside. "The sunshine accents you well." 

"Don't…don't compliment me." 

Ushijima slid his hand under a leaf, turning it to inspect. "Your leaves look better."

"You know what would be better? If you went and got my crown."

"That's too heavy." Ushijima brushed his fingers over another leaf. "Plants aren't meant to carry weight."

Oikawa didn't have a response, so he simmered quietly, waiting for Ushijima to leave. Ushijima continued to look over Oikawa's leaves, carefully avoiding the thorny stem. Ushijima softly traced his finger on a leaf, from middle to tip. 

"You're a demon plant, but other than your telepathy, you seem like an ordinary plant," Ushijima said.

"Ordinary? I don't need your opinion." 

Ushijima moved on to Oikawa's petals. They were large, colored with soft red mixed with dark blue, and tipped with a heavier red. Oikawa couldn't see himself, but Ushijima could appreciate every shade. 

Ushijima let go of a petal. "I was talking about your magic."

"Hn."

Ushijima looked away, preparing to leave. "Do you need anything?"

Oikawa rumbled through Ushijima's thoughts. "...No."

"I'll come back, then."

 

* * *

 

Ushijima returned every day to check on Oikawa, his willingness masked but still obvious. Ushijima watered him appropriately, humored his complaints and thoughts, and asked him if he needed anything. Oikawa didn't actually need anything until the start of winter, when snow began to fall and a cold chill started to trickle through the walls. There was a clear view of the gentle snow outside, but the window right next to him meant that he could feel the cold clearly as well.

"Can't you heat up this room? It's freezing!"

"I can't do that. Fire is dangerous, and I can't use magic." Ushijima untied his cape and removed it from his neck. "But I can provide this."

"What? Your clothes? No, not that."

Ushijima still draped it over him. He tucked it around Oikawa, careful to pin the top of it to the latches on the window to keep the weight off of Oikawa. The bottom of it piled and pooled around Oikawa, some of it brushing against Oikawa's petals and leaves. 

It was warm. Oikawa couldn't smell as a plant, but he thought that if he could, he'd smell the aromatic manifestation of Ushijima's own deep warmth. Oikawa felt his body heat lingering in the clothing, at least.

"Is this warm enough?" Ushijima asked.

Ushijima didn't hear a response. Oikawa wasn't speaking through telepathy. If he was in his original form, then the silence would be filled with his choked noises of surprise.

"Oikawa?" Ushijima asked. "If it's not enough, I can ask Kenma--"

"It's enough."

Ushijima nodded. "I can give you warm water as well."

"Go ahead."

Ushijima nodded again in affirmation. He scratched at his shoulder and rolled it, waiting for Oikawa to say more.

"Why're you still doing this?"

"Doing what?" Ushijima asked.

"Taking care of me. I didn't even think you liked me. Did Iwa yell at you  _that_ much?"

"Iwaizumi told me in passing. I volunteered to come," Ushijima said.

"You  _volunteered_?"

"I like caring for plants. Hinata asked me to care for one of his, too."

"Oh. So it's a peasant hobby. Go back to his plant, then."

"Hinata's plant is a simple, dull plant," Ushijima said. "If Hinata left it alone, then I would have an easier time caring for it, but he interferes."

"Don't try to make me feel better."

"Are you jealous of his plant? I can--" 

"Stop talking, right now."

Ushijima's mouth closed. He turned and walked away, his clothes swishing and waving a little less without his cape. His clothes looked more barren without it, too. 

"I didn't mean it literally! Come back! I… He left, feh." Oikawa mulled over what he said. "I need to teach him what a joke is. Or sarcasm." Oikawa fell quiet, already waiting patiently for tomorrow.

**Author's Note:**

> (General A/N that exists at the end of all my fics): I find unsolicited concrit really rude, I'm not looking for any. Please don't tell me someone was OOC/something happened you didn't like/it's too short/etc. in any bookmarks or comments.


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